1836. MAYOR OF LYONS V. EAST INDIA pension, and the several payment of gift, and others, and also the several establishment, if a surplus above 100,000l. sterling, or about ten lacks of sicca rupees, remainin of my estate, that above surplus of ten lacks of sicca rupees, is to be divided in such a manner as to increase the several establishment of Calcutta, at Lyon, and Lucknow, as that they may be permanent, and exist for ever. Besides the sum allowed for finishing all the building and other of Constantia House, which I suppose may amount to 2,00,000 sicca rupees, I also give and bequeath the sum of 1,00,000 sicca rupees for the support of the college and other school, to be regulated as the Calcutta establishment, as per articles 24; as also, as the establishment at Lyon, articles 25; the gift for the poor of Lucknow to conducted as mentioned in articles 23. I also give and bequeath the sum of 4,000 rupees, to be paid annually, for to liberate as many prisoner for debt at Lucknow as it may extend: and if none, then that sum is to remain to the estate. Any sum remaining is to be placed at interest, for to accumilate and improve the several establishment and concern of Indigo." The 34th article contained several specific bequests of jewellery and mourning rings to his women and executors, and contained a provision for the payment to his executors, administrators, &c., of the usual commissions, and as the Supreme Court should think necessary for their trouble. This Will, together with the Abstracts, was duly proved by Gavin Hamilton, Alexander Aberdeen, John Caulfield, John Palmer, and Joseph Quierose, in the Supreme Court at Calcutta, in the year 1800. It was also proved in the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury by the same executors, with the exception of Gavin Hamilton, on the 18th of July 1803; by Louis Martin, the testator's half-brother, on the 5th of April 1802; and on his death letters of administration to the testator, with his will annexed, were taken out by the appellant, Christophe Martin, on the 13th of August 1817. For the purpose of having the several charities mentioned by the testator established, and for carrying into execution the trusts of his will, four suits were instituted in the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William, in Bengal. The first was an information and bill filed on the 20th June 1816, by Edward Stredtell, Esq., the then Advocate-general for the East India Company, at the relation of John Martin Wickins, against Palmer and Deverinne, two of the executors, for an account of the personal estate of the testator, and for the purpose of carrying into effect the direction contained in the 24th article of his will, for the establishment of the charitable institution in the town of Calcutta. The defendants having filed their answers to this information, the cause came on to be heard on the 2d November 1816, when the Supreme Court established the charitable bequests to the town of Calcutta, and directed the sum of two lacs of sicca rupees, confessed to be in the hands of Palmer, to be paid into Court, and applied in establishing that charity; and ordered the Master of the Supreme Court to approve of a proper scheme to effectuate such charitable purpose, and the Master was to take the usual accounts of the personal estate of the testator, and of his debts, legacies, and funeral expenses, and the Supreme Court directed a commission to issue to 1836. MAYOR OF LYONS V. EAST INDIA 1836. MAYOR OF LYONS v. EAST INDIA receive the claims of the legatees in Great Britain, Ireland, and France; and ordered the costs of the suit to be taxed and paid out of fund in the hands of the executor John Palmer. The second suit was instituted on the 26th August 1818, in the same Court, in the name of Adam Peter Eustache Godinot, Mayor of Lyons, acting in behalf for, and in the name of, the community of the city of Lyons, against Palmer and Deverinne, the executors of Claude Martin, praying that he might, on behalf of the city, be at liberty to receive the several legacies mentioned in the 25th article of the testator's will, with interest; that a provision might be made to enable the community of the city, or its magistrates, to receive 4,000 rupees per annum, to be applied as directed by the testator; that his landed property at Calcutta and Chandernagore might be declared to be personal property, and that Palmer and Deverinne should give an account of his real and personal property; and that the city of Lyons might be declared entitled to one-third of the clear residue of it. On the 4th August 1819, the defendants put in their answers, in which the accounts of the estate were set out at great length. The third suit was instituted on the 22d October 1818, by the appellant, Christophe Martin, one of the legatees named in the Will of General Martin, and the son and executor sous benefice d'inventaire of Louis Martin, the testator's half-brother, and Maria Desgranges Martin, the widow, Pierre Balloffett and Claudine his wife, the daughter, and François Martin, the youngest son of Louis Martin, all of whom claimed beneficial interests under the will, against Robert Spankie Esq., the then Advocate-General, Palmer and Deverinne. In this suit that the plaintiffs insisted that Louis Martin was entitled, under the Mahomedan law, to all the testator's undisposed-of real and personal estate; upon his death they succeeded to his right as his representatives and legatees; and they prayed for an account of the testator's real estate, that his real estates, wheresoever situate in India, might be sold; that Palmer and Deverinne might be charged with the loss arising from their negligence; and that the plaintiffs might be declared entitled to all sums invested for the payment of pensions and annuities, as the pensioners and annuitants might respectively die, and that the principal might be named in the meantime; that Palmer and Deverinne should deposit all securities and title deeds with the Accountant-general; and that the plaintiffs might be declared entitled to these legacies, and all the undisposed residue of the testator's estate, and also to a legacy to his halfbrother, Pierre Martin, which had lapsed by the death of Pierre Martin in the lifetime of the testator. The defendants, Palmer and Deverinne, on the 4th March 1819, put in their answer to this bill, in which they admitted their receipt of very large sums in respect of the testator's personal estate, and of the rents and profits of his real estate in the provinces in India, subject to the East India Company, in Calcutta and in Chandernagore: but they stated that Joseph Quierose had taken possession of, and received the rents and profits of, the testator's real estate in the province of the Nabob Vizier; and that Louis Martin had taken possession of the testator's personal estate, public funds, and stock of the East India Company, out of which he ought to have discharged the legacies 1836. MAYOR OF LYONS V. EAST INDIA 1836. MAYOR OF LYONS v. EAST INDIA to the testator's relations in France; and that Palmer had remitted to England two lacs of rupees, amounting to 25,8331. 6s. 8d. sterling, to Messrs. Paxton, Cockerell, Traill &Co., of London, to pay the Mayor of Lyons, and that a suit had been instituted against Messrs. Paxton, Cockerell, Traill & Co., by the appellant, Christophe Martin, and the Mayor of Lyons, in the Court of Chancery in England, for that sum. The fourth suit was instituted on the 19th February 1819, by Palmer and Deverinne, the two defendants in the former suits, filing a cross-bill against the appellants, Christophe Martin, Maria Desgranges Martin, Pierre Balloffett and Claudine his wife, and François Martin, in which they stated that Louis Martin had, in the character of executor of Claude Martin, possessed himself of various sums of stock and other property, and prayed for an account in the usual manner of the property of Claude Martin which had thus come into the hands of Louis Martin. The answers of the defendants to this bill were taken under a commission, and were not filed until about the 24th July 1823. That of the appellants, Christophe Martin, Maria Desgranges Martin, and François Martin, admitted that Christophe Martin had obtained letters of administration to Claude Martin; and Christophe Martin stated, that it appeared from Louis Martin's accounts that he had possessed himself of stock belonging to the testator, Claude Martin, to the amount of 45, 7077. 9s. 5d. sterling, or thereabouts, with which it appeared that he had paid all the testator's legacies to his relations in France, except one to Pierre Martin, who died in the testator's life-time: but they denied that they had possessed themselves of any part of the pro |